


Impact of Power - Billy

by jtrevizo



Category: Power Rangers Zeo
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-03
Updated: 2012-11-03
Packaged: 2017-11-17 16:24:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/553548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jtrevizo/pseuds/jtrevizo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The seventh in the Impact of Power Series. Having been sidelined,<br/>Billy reflects on his new life post ranger powers. Spoilers through PRZ - "A<br/>Zeo Beginning, Part II".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impact of Power - Billy

It was late; Billy knew that but when he had a project he needed to work on, he had found that working late at night at the command center made for a better work environment. It was quiet and dark, except where he was working, and it allowed him to move about as he needed without worrying if he was going to run into one of the others or have to drop everything due to a monster attack. Unfortunately it also meant that his mind was only focused on the task at hand and he found occasionally his thoughts would wander away with him. 

And so it was on this night. even with the highly engaging and complicated technological design he was working on his brain seemed to have other plans as it was veering into a place he’d fought hard to leave behind, but knew for a fact wasn’t all that easy to let go as he had a daily reminder of it.

The fact he wasn’t a ranger.

When the Zeo powers had passed him over, Billy had been understandably upset, but at the time he hadn't realized just what it was going to do for him in the long run.

There had been days in the early weeks after the shift of the team dynamics when he really hadn’t wanted to have anything to do with power rangers. He had found himself feeling short changed; that he’d been somehow found wanting by the zeo crystal. And for everything that he’d done before then, years of blue triceratops, the wolf and everything to have the power not choose him had been a blow.

After what felt like way too many hours wallowing in self-pity he’d hauled himself up both mentally and physically and thrown himself into doing something useful; something he was good at and no one else could really do, power or not.

So instead of being a hero under a helmet he’d become the person behind the scenes keeping “his” team safe; telling them when there was a problem and making sure their zords and equipment worked every time they went out there. He was there for them when they needed a back up plan, a new strategy, new... anything to keep the the battle from being lost on a daily basis.

It was a different kind of responsibility though. Instead of singularly being a member of the team, doing back flips and trading punches with bad guys he oversaw everything. He did things that kept the team together, kept them alive. He had come into his own as an inventor, a scientist and a mathematician. He’d studied astrophysics at the knee of an interdimensional being and now could repair and build things beyond imagining.

Being out of uniform had actually turned him into a better ranger.

Well, not exactly.

He wasn’t a ranger now. Not in the conventional sense. He was closer to a combination between Alpha and Zordon. But what he did every day helped those of his friends that were still rangers. And in helping them he helped countless others.

In hindsight, he’d realized that he’d always been destined for this role.

From understanding how Alpha worked to digging into the creation of the White Ranger... his knowledge had always been his ‘power’. He’d learned to fight with Jason and Trini’s aid, and then with Tommy as tutors. Kim’s gymnastics had come in handy, and Zack’s hip hop kito had been the groundwork for learning good footwork for fighting.

Still, as he paused now at his workbench where he stood in the command center, flanked by control panels, machines and the tubes that held those first uniforms, he gave a small, accepting grin as realized that everything he’d done before had allowed him to transition to what he was now.

And that was still, no matter that he wasn’t in uniform or piloting a zord, was in one simple word - ranger.


End file.
